nurture is a mobile first website focused on all things mental health related. this website helps users in need of help to find a therapist easily by filtering options that give them exactly what they're looking for.
role
- ux researcher
- ui designer
- ux designer
scope
- deliver an end to end mobile responsive website
- minimum viable product (mvp) in 80 hours
nurture is a mental health platform that allows users to find therapists based on what their needs are.
users can select a variety of options to tailor to a specific therapist that is experienced with said options. nurture also specializes with personal accounts that help users journal, track goals, utilize resources and more!
as years pass, mental health has been a more publicly spoken topic and less taboo. with that in mind, accessibility to mental health resources have been a difficult subject to navigate for those seeking help. from insurance to out of pocket costs to therapy personality fits, many things can go awry when searching for help, or even just getting started.
people seeking mental health help need an easy and effective way to get the help they need without unecessary steps.
what types of mental health resources ease the process of seeking help?
the goal of the research is to discover what types of mental health resources people seek out the most when looking for help.
- interviewed 5 participants ranging from ages 23-32
- 3 women, 1 man, 1 non-binary person
- all texas residents
- 2 in person interviews, 1 on the phone, 2 on a video call
the interviews were extremely insightful with how many people endure pain points regarding mental health, more specifically, therapy. every person had gone through therapy and had expressed frustrations with finances, insurance, and especially with therapist compatibility.
for the most part, all participants wanted to maintain and improve their mental health through seeking some type of professional help.
- all participants voiced frustration with finding a therapist in general
- some participants said cost was a huge factor since many therapists do not accept sliding scale or even accept insurance
- participants mentioned feeling "turned off" by their therapist when they said something controversial or uncomfortable
- frustration was pointed to the fact that finding the right therapist took time, when it shouldn't
- participants expressed wanting to improve their mental health or maintain it through different outlets
- some participants voiced community and social relationships being a huge improvement to their wellbeing
- some participants expressed wanting to find more outlet to help them improve their mental health
although all of the websites surrounded mental health, they each had something different or something that was lacking compared to the rest of them.
- better help had therapist matching and connects you to those on that platform, but was lacking in being able to choose certain ones.
- psychology today is a website that allows you to find therapists based on filters but does not have their own platform with their own specialists.
- mentalhelp.net is a mental health resource that has blog posts, ways to learn, etc. but no specialists.
- cerebral has its own therapist platform where you can select based on criteria, but it can be expensive.
most pain points surrounded therapy. it is a long, arduous process for many people due to insurance, affordability and on personality fit. many people want a therapist they can relate to, making diversity and inclusion very important.
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the user personas here created are based on the information gathered during affinity mapping. i wanted to incorporate personas that had pain points surrounding therapy, affordability, and inclusivity to represent the users during my user interviews.
this flow is planned for a user trying to find a therapist based on certain criteria and scheduling a consultation. it was helpful creating this specific flow because i could see step by step what was necessary in helping a user search a therapist and also request a consultation.
using my user flows, i designed the low fidelity wireframes. i knew i wanted to make it simple and easy to go through the flow. i had some deciding to do with how exactly to display the filtering because there are many options. i didn't want to overwhelm the user too much, and since it's a mobile first site it's important not to clutter too much.
with this mood board i wanted to bring in the themes of calmness, motivation, and earthy tones. i found a collection of things that brought in those elements whether it be from cute drawings, icons, graphics or ui designs.
following the same themes of earthy tones and peace in my mood board, i tried to keep it going in my style tile. i opted for tones that were opposite of each other but same in the sense of tranquility. i wanted to keep it simple with my typography, header and card components. icons would have somewhat of a bold stroke to pop out. buttons, checkboxes, radio buttons and search bars would be minimalistic.
for my prototype i wanted to keep the visuals simple and clean. i made sure the filter was clear enough like i did in my low fidelity wireframes and that the therapist cards were easy enough to read. more information would be available once they click on the cards to read more and scheduling a consultation would be simple.
the goal of this usabilty testing was to measure how concise and easy it was to search for a therapist as well as request a consultation. i wanted to see what users pain points were as well as gather necessary feedback to improve the flow.
the user must find a therapist located in brooklyn, new york using the search feature. they must find a therapist based on using the filter feature for ADHD and anxiety. finally, they need to schedule a consultation once they find a good fit.
- interviewed 5 participants ranging from ages 25-33
- 4 women, 1 man
- all texas residents but live in different cities (houston, austin, dallas)
- 3 in person interviews, 2 on a video call
- 50% of users were squinting when reading therapist descriptions
- 100% of users were able to send a consultation message
- 80% of users commented on UI and ease of use
- 0 critical errors
- 80% of users filtered therapists correctly
overall, everyone who used the prototype had minimal issues with accessing each page. the most positive feedback heard was the visual and ui design. users said it was easy on the eyes and made it easier to navigate. the negative feedback was mostly around typography being small.
i noticed some users looking forward a bit more or squinting to see the therapist descriptions. people also felt like having more filter options would be nice. some users also tried to click on therapists that were not part of the flow and were confused why they couldn’t. the biggest feedback i felt was important was not having an option for remote therapists.
for this iteration, i incorporated the usability test results and added some slightly noticeable differences to improve the prototype. i increased the body text to 18px as the minimum size since there was some struggle with readability. i also added the second therapist screen as a way for users to be able to interact and see a "join waitlist" possibility if scheduling a consultation is not possible.
it was fascinating to learn that there were many pain points established in the world of mental health. i enjoyed being able to talk to people about their experiences and what they'd like to see to help ease the process. being able to synthesize the research and figure out what the main issues were and how to solve them were tricky, but definitely eye opening to connect the dots.
i believe nurture helps solve the user issues with therapy since the filtering process helps those who are finding exactly what they need. whether it be affordability, therapy types, ethnicities, languages, etc. there is something for everyone.
for next steps, i am hoping to do another usability test for the final prototype to get more feedback and continue iterating. overall, i am very happy with nurture and would love to continue adding the features i feel would help users out with their mental health journey!
